---

Compiled by Brian Kalish

July 25, 2011

Marshfield– On a sun-drenched Monday morning at River Edge Golf Course in Marshfield, LeRoy Butler, along with Packers greats William Henderson, George Koonce and Jerry Kramer, showed up for a golf outing to raise money for breast cancer survivors.  The LeRoy Butler Foundation’s mission is to help women going through breast cancer treatment obtain the assistance they need to focus on the job of healing.  CentralWisconsinSports.net spoke with Super Bowl champion LeRoy Butler about his foundation, the NFL labor dispute and how he feels about the Packers repeating as world champions in the 2011 campaign.

CentralWisconsinSports.net: How long have you been involved in raising money for breast cancer through your foundation?

LeRoy Butler: Well, we’ve been doing it for about five or six years now.  Sometimes we forget how many years we’ve done it.  But we’re doing it… not really for the publicity; we do it because it’s needed.  There are a lot of women out there who need help, and we just try to be there for them.  And I think that’s the good thing about it.  You know, I think when people send money to research and you don’t see a cure, they’re not sure if they’re interested in giving.  So we give it to the women so they can see their money is going to a good cause.

CWS: What motivated you to get involved with this cause?

Butler: I saw a young lady when I was playing in 1998 against the San Francisco 49ers.  She had a pink ribbon on her jersey and told me about breast cancer.  I have four daughters, and it made sense to do something about it.  And I don’t want to be stuck on this earth with a bunch of guys [laughs] so it was an easy decision to get involved.

CWS: What can you say about the Marshfield area and the hospitality here?

Butler: Every time we do something here, people are just so generous and we just love coming here every year.  We’ve been coming here for four years and it’s really been… it’s just unbelievable.

CWS: Can I ask you a few football questions?

Butler: Sure.

CWS: It looks like a labor agreement is going to get worked out finally…

Butler: Well…

CWS: What are your thoughts on the whole dispute?

Butler: Well, you know something, it takes time.  I feel like, through the whole thing, no side negotiated in good faith.  Had they done that, they would have had a deal done a while ago.  With that being said, the owners opted out. So by them opting out, they should have been prepared with what they really wanted to do.  And it really wasn’t that big of a deal because getting a deal done in March, April, even May… so what, you know?  You’ve got to get a deal done now because football’s about to start.  Both sides are about to start losing paychecks. Now the owners did lose the Hall of Fame game.  But you don’t want to start missing game checks.  And the fans… you don’t want your fans going elsewhere.

CWS: You were never involved in a situation like what’s going on now, were you?

Butler: No.  (The NFL) went through that in the late ’80s. I got there in 1990, thank God.  But for the most part, right now, if they can do a 10 year deal with a seven year opt out for the players, great.  It’s time to play football.  The money will always work itself out.  There’s no winners and losers in this, and that’s what I mean ‘negotiating in good faith.’  I mean, what’s fair?  Let’s put it this way: the owners are not going to be broke in this lifetime.  But it could be players who lose benefits.  So that being said, I was hoping this could’ve gotten done a long time ago.  And I don’t like the media aspects of it because I’ve got 14-year-old kids asking me about the lockout– and I all I can say is ‘What?’  To me, that’s crazy.  It’s time to play football.

CWS: Once everything gets settled, how do you feel about the Packers this year?

Butler: For the next five years, I think they’ll win two or three championships.  They’re that good.

CWS: Three more championships?  You’re serious?

Butler: Yeah.  I don’t just blow smoke.  Aaron Rodgers I think is the best quarterback in the NFL.  There’s no other quarterback I’d rather have.  There’s no other general manager I’d rather have (than Ted Thompson) and there’s definitely no other coach I’d rather have than coach McCarthy.  And I’ll tell you, (when I was playing) we could have won another one or two championships, but we didn’t stay intact.  Holmgren left.  Ron Wolf retired.  But now, with this core of guys, Rodgers, Thompson and McCarthy, they’re going to be together a long time, so a lot of good things should happen.